THE parents of a 12-year-old girl who ran off with a former US Marine yesterday told of the moment she phoned to say she was coming home.

Shevaun Pennington was safe and well and back in the arms of her parents, Stephen and Joanna, last night, five days after disappearing with the ex-soldier she had met over the internet.

Mrs Pennington, 42, of Lowton, near Leigh, Greater Manchester, later described the early-morning phone call in which her daughter said she was coming home, as the best she had ever had.

The schoolgirl flew home alone from Stuttgart, via Amsterdam, before being met by police and taken to a joyful family reunion at Leigh police station.

Shortly before Shevaun arrived back in the UK, former Marine Toby Studabaker, 31, was arrested in Frankfurt on suspicion of child abduction.

Superintendent Peter Mason, a senior officer in the hunt for the pair, broke the news to reporters that Shevaun was safe.

"It is a great relief to inform you that Shevaun Pennington is safe and well," he said.

"Toby Studabaker was arrested by German police at Frankfurt yesterday afternoon.

"He was arrested for abduction under the power of an international arrest warrant sworn out in the Greater Manchester area."

Mr Mason had phoned the FBI in America around lunchtime, triggering an operation that involved British police, the FBI and the German authorities.

Earlier it emerged that authorities involved in the hunt had found child pornography downloaded from the internet to a computer used by Studabaker.

It was also clear, from evidence on the computer, that the former soldier had known Shevaun's real age, despite telling his own family that she had claimed to be 19.

But the media were asked not to refer to what had been found on the computer or the fact Studabaker had once been charged with molesting a 12-year-old girl until the pair had been found, in case it jeopardised the hunt.

The search ended when the school-girl was met from a plane at Manchester airport around 2.30pm. She had been with Studabaker "until very recently", police said.

Just two hours earlier, Shevaun's mother made another appeal to her daughter to come home.

Joanna Pennington, said: "Come home. Please come home. That is all we want."

Later, a smiling Mrs Pennington told of the moment she first hugged her daughter following her ordeal.

She said: "I cannot tell you how relieved I am. It is such a turnaround from the situation days ago, which seems years ago. It is absolutely fantastic."

She described the reunion: "I said 'How are you' and 'give us a hug'. She gave me a hug and said she was not too bad. We will take it from there."

Mr Pennington, 43, added: "She seemed well enough. I asked if she was tired, she said she was all right. From now on, we just carry on with our lives as best we can."

Mrs Pennington then paid tribute to both the police and the media, whom she said had worked together in a team effort to bring her daughter home.

A spokeswoman for the Federal Bureau of Criminal Investigations in Wiesbaden said Studabaker had been arrested walking alone in Frankfurt-am-Main after German Police were alerted to the fact that he was wanted in the UK.

He is now in police custody in Frankfurt while investigations continue into whether he must face a court in Germany or can be extradited to the UK. In America, Studabaker's sister-in-law, Sherry, said news of the arrest was a "relief".